BREASTFEEDING AND WORK: WORLD VISION TANZANIA LAUNCHES NURSING ROOMS FOR STAFF

Author: Elizabethproscovia Ndaba, Health & Nutrition Team Lead, WV Tanzania

The theme for this year’s World Breastfeeding Week – celebrated annually from 1-7 August – is Enabling Breastfeeding: Making a difference for working parents. Women need adequate time and support to breastfeed, and workplace challenges remain the most common reason for women to never breastfeed or stop breastfeeding earlier than recommended. Women employed in formal workplaces face a significant challenge in attaining their breastfeeding goals, especially after returning to work. The Tanzania Demographic Health Survey 2022 indicates an exclusive breastfeeding rate of 59 per cent. Many working women are unable to exclusively breastfeed their children due to the lack of adequate maternity leave – in Tanzania the current paid maternity leave is 12 weeks. Breastfeeding rooms provide a dedicated space for nursing mothers to express milk, enabling them to continue breastfeeding and bonding with their babies. This support can help them feel valued and respected by their employers, increasing their job satisfaction and reducing stress levels.

The decision to create breastfeeding rooms in World Vision offices in Tanzania was originally sparked by an incident in the Kenyan parliament in August 2019, where a female Member of Parliament was removed from the parliamentary chamber by the sergeant-at-arms because she brought her five-month-old daughter to work with her. The act of breastfeeding in parliament led to a halt in the parliamentary proceedings, and a number of female MPs walked out in solidarity. This raised the issue of breastfeeding in the workplace within the region, as the story was covered by international and local media.

Ms Elizabethproscovia Ndaba accompanies Faith and Development, Public Engagement Director, Dr Joseph Mayala, during the launch of the Nursing room at World Vision Tanzania, Dar es Salaam office, the event took place during the commemorations of World Breast-feeding Week.

In commemoration of International Women’s Day in March 2023, the women in World Vision Tanzania’s cluster offices shared their concern about their inability to follow the World Health Organization breastfeeding guidelines that World Vision recommended to parents in the communities in which they worked – exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months and continued breastfeeding to two years and beyond. The two hours per day allocated to breastfeeding for the first six months after completing the maternity period (stipulated by the Tanzania Employment and Labour Relations Act of 2014) was not adequate due to the distances female staff lived from the office, especially in cities with heavy traffic, and hindered the women’s efficiency in work. There was also a lack of privacy in the offices for breastfeeding or expressing milk. These issues affected almost 40 per cent of World Vision Tanzania’s female employees. The matter was discussed by the Senior Leadership Team, and approval was given to establish a nursing room in each cluster office.